2016 Topps Now Gets Its First Relic Card
By Ryan Cracknell | Hobby Editor
The timely nature of 2016 Topps Now Baseball makes game-specific a natural fit. Usually that’s not possible, at least in a way that would deliver such cards quickly. The All-Star Game made for the right circumstances, though, to give it a try. To commemorate the Midsummer Classic, the first Topps Now relic card was created.
A variation of card the game’s MVP, Eric Hosmer, was made with a piece of a base used in the 2016 MLB All-Star Game.
Unlike regular cards, there was no open-ended print run. The amount of base swatches available was limited. As a result, the card came with a print run of 99 numbered copies.
Sold initially on the Topps website for $59.99, the card sold out in less than an hour. Typically, 2016 Topps Now Baseball cards are available for 24 hours.
It didn’t take long for a couple of the buyers who locked in to list them on eBay. Within a few hours, one closed at $249.99.
The Topps Now Hosmer relic card comes with the seal of approval from MLB Authentication. All 99 cards come with an authentication hologram that can be checked online, much like the memorabilia cards in 2015 Topps Strata Baseball.
For those working on the main 2016 Topps Now set that might have missed out, the card is essentially an insert. There’s a regular version of the card that has the standard 24-hour selling window.
This isn’t the first premium insert for the online product. So far, there have been autographs from Brandon Crawford and Ichiro. Both were sent randomly to ten collectors who ordered regular versions of the cards.
Hosmer broke Mike Trout’s two-year run as All-Star MVP after hitting a home run and getting an RBI single later in the game.
Comments? Questions? Contact Ryan Cracknell on Twitter @tradercracks.
More than a little overpriced.
Looking at completed sale, a
2008 Upper Deck Eric Hosmer USA Junior National Team patch/auto card #/99 sold for less than half
that price.
No doubt, the completists will want it, but the price is has no where but down to go.
On the plus side, at least it has a good providence and you can be sure it came from the all star game, unlike most of the so-called game used stuff that has come out the last few years, especially in the case of old timers.
Why was this limited to 99? Topps couldn’t find 100 people willing to shell out $60 for a card memorializing what should be a useless game, like it is en every other sport. Also, most know this card will be worth less than $6 soon.
Likely in large part because that’s all that was available for the card. It sold out in less than an hour so demand was there and probably could have sold more. Unique nature will keep it selling for more than your average relic as well.
I saw it when it was first listed and thought about buying one, but the $59.99 price turned me off. I am shocked to see these reselling for so much more. Hopefully those are legit sales and not just people trying to pump up the price.
Its “news” articles like this that pump up demand and thus the price. Consider that some of the most expensive Topps Now cards had the highest print runs.
And, if you check the prices of them now, they have dropped quite a bit from their height. Pricing on many of these cards keeping bouncing all over the place.
Its possible that enough of a cult following could form to actually sustain some of the prices.
It’s still nuts to see some of these card sell for far above what some far more limited quantity cards have sold at. It might be that the nature of distribution is such that far fewer singles will go on the market unlike the case where people open a pack and get random stuff they don’t want, and thus sell.
Before this article was written, one had already sold for $249.99. Perhaps they read about it elsewhere or perhaps that’s what they wanted to pay for it. There’s a difference in reporting what something sells for and saying that something will be worth $X amount in the future. Will this particular card continue to sell for $250? I seriously doubt it, but the article doesn’t say it will, either. I think it’s important that one-off sales, like the one mentioned here, are prefaced and not to imply a pattern or worth. I’m a big believer in people paying what they want for something so they’re happy with it in then end.
This is a noteworthy card for a couple of reasons: it’s the first on-demand card to get the memorabilia added to it. It also comes from directly from a specific event that’s one of the bigger games of the baseball season, at least from a visibility standpoint.
Prices on cards fluctuate. They always have and they always will. It’s also not always about price but rather actually enjoying a card for what it is.